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We want to ask for your help in another way. We have the opportunity to bring along an extra checked bag each on our trip full of donations for the transition home that has been caring for our kids for the last year. They rely on these kind of donations to care for the kids in their care. Will you consider donating something? Large or small, it all makes a big difference. I would be happy to come collect stuff or you can always bring stuff to us! Please let me know if you have questions. Thank you!
The Thomas Center is in VERY desperate need of infant formula and Poly Vitamins. We will be also using these items for our little ones at Kidane Mehret Children’s Home.

We bought our tickets to Ethiopia today! I truly was starting to believe this would never really happen.

Our trip to Ethiopia has been a beautiful progression of plans. Originally we had planned that Kyle and I would take two approx 1 week trips, one for court and one to bring our kiddos home. Back in the fall, we found out that this process was speeding up and we would now only have to take one 2 week trip. Well this change quickly led us to realize that we would be able to take Lily and Beau along with us! 3 years ago we had decided they were a little too young to handle the intensity of a trip like this and we just couldn’t justify the expense. Well now they’re 11 and 13 and we had already been planning on 4 round trip tickets! It felt like a no brainer. We felt a lot of peace about it and as we talked to family and friends, they really helped confirm that it was a great plan! The kids were overjoyed! They have been such an encouragement to us throughout this process, we are so glad they will get to be a part of this step. We also think it will be so good for us to all be together as we begin our time as a family! I can only imagine that these two will love having Lily and Beau to play with!
Well here’s where the plan changed a bit. Now that we have our court date, we’re hearing that things are a little slower than they were in the fall, so now we’re anticipating spending 3-4 weeks in Ethiopia. In a lot of ways, we’re thrilled about this, but it won’t be easy. It means a lot of time cooped up in our guest house getting to know each other, time away from school and no work for our self employed business owner. We had hoped that some work would be able to continue without us, but that isn’t turning out to be the case. That’s ok, we feel so much peace about it, but it means no vacation or sick pay to get us through a month away. We really still feel that this is the direction we’d like to walk forward in and we’d like to ask for your help.
So many of you have supported us along the way, we couldn’t have done it without you! We’re asking you to consider walking with us again.
We have our flights covered now and a good amount of our expenses, we might need to dip into our savings a bit more than we planned for our stay at the guest house, food, drivers, shopping, etc. But our biggest unexpected expense is turning out to be just covering our bills back home. Of course or grocery, gas and entertainment budget will be taken care of, but our ongoing expenses will still be due while we’re gone.
Here’s where we’re asking for you to join us in this. We could use our line of credit, our credit card or the money we’re saving for a down payment, but we have a suspicion that you – our friends, our family, our community, would love to walk in this with us. So we’re asking. Will you partner with us in our family’s trip to Ethiopia?

We purchased a beautiful puzzle of the world that we plan to frame and hang in our home as a fun reminder of this special trip. We’d like to include all of you in it. For a $10 donation, we will write your name on the back of one of the puzzle pieces. You can purchase as many pieces as you would like. As a special incentive, if you buy 10 puzzle pieces, we’ll bring you home something special from Ethiopia. We already have our eye on some special items that we know will be treasures!
There are 3 ways you can give.

You can use the pay pal button on our blog’s homepage, or follow this Link.

You can give us cash or a check.

You can send us the money through square cash. $kyleklevjer or $jamieklevjer

Phew! This turned into a long post! I always think I have a quick thought to share and then it takes so many words! Thanks for reading. My heart is so filled with all of the special care we’ve received in this entire process. Thanks for considering!

Thank you so much to all of you who have been able to give!! We can hardly express how blessed we’ve been by your enormous generosity! It’s humbling and inspiring. I wanted to repost our giving instructions with an address change for if you donate to our account under YWAM’s 501(c)(3).

Here’s how: It’s pretty specific, but totally easy…

Write a check out to “Adoption Ministry of YWAM”
DO NOT put our names anywhere on the check;
leave the “Memo” line blank.
Include a note that says, “Please use these funds towards the Ethiopian Adoption Fund. We request that funds be directed to the Klevjer family if possible.”
We have a great relationship with Adoption Ministry and trust them with the donations that come in on our behalf. This language is necessary to keep in compliance with the rules of the IRS.
Include your address on the note so they can send you a receipt.
Mail your donation to
Adoption Ministry of YWAM,
PO Box 1145
Puyallup, WA 98371

YWAM will keep a record of all funds that come in for the Klevjer’s.

Also, if you aren’t real concerned with receiving a tax deduction for your donation feel free to see the Side Bar on this blog and use our “Donate” button or just mail a donation to our address.

I’m overwhelmed watching this come together. It’s amazing. Thank you so much for all of the ways you’ve supported us. We feel every single one.

The day every adopting family waits for is the day your agency calls you and says, “Good news, your referral just came in!” There’s laughing, there’s crying, phones are dropped on the kitchen floor, Instagram and Facebook blow up with #adoption, #referral, #werehavingababy,#somebodypinchme, and #drinksonme. Fees get wired; more documents get signed, notarized and filed. Ads are posted for a biological mother or father to respond and claim their lost, stolen, or abandoned child. Then, the court date is issued. Over-priced airline tickets are hastily purchased. You fly; you soar to distant lands where you see for the first time face to face your new heirs. Your son is so handsome. Your daughter is so wiggly and squishy. It’s brief. You appear in court, you swear and pledge. Your dossier is combed by an eagle-eyed error hunter. It’s good! You pass court, take in a few more eye fulls of your child’s beginning, fly home, wait for court docs to be investigated and approved, and… It’s time to bring them home. More flying, more last-minute adoption reading, more stiff necks, more dirt roads, more butterflies in your stomach, more tears. There they are, right where you left them. “Let’s go home.” You bump, fly, cry, shush, rock, apologize and pray your whole way home where enough loved ones to encourage and celebrate, but not too many that would cause a panic, are there, in the airport, with signs, hugs, kisses, tears and smiles, ‘cause it’s a lot like crossing the Jordan river to that place of great joy, and no more tears, and Yes! No, of course it’s not that, but for a little while it could be. After all, Jesus is there. Abba is there. Your brothers and sisters are there, and it’s a party. It’s the beginning of a great party.

Please, would you help us get to the party?

As you know, we received the call, the letter was finally signed. There were tears and smiles and no dropped phones, (good thing- I was on a roof). However, we have not yet reached the full amount of funds needed to accept our referral. Can you help? A little goes a long way, or as my Dad always says, “Many hands make light work.” We need you. We’ve never endeavored anything like this, it’s so far beyond us. We need you. You really can help. Click here to help bring two beautiful children home to their waiting forever family.

And now for something encouraging. Just four weeks ago we were $9,000 short on paying our referral fee. This morning we were $6,500 short. This evening we are sitting at $5,500. It’s really happening! Thank you, Heavenly Father, and thank you dear, dear family and friends, and Beautiful Day customers for your love, kindness and generosity.

I want to come right out and say, this is a support letter. You are about to be asked, again, to help two children, stuck for over two years in an orphanage, to finally come home to their new Forever Family. We love you all, and we need your help…

Major things have happened in our adoption process in the last week and a half. Two weeks ago we would have told you that it appeared it was time for us to move on, that the Ministry of Woman’s Affairs responsible for declaring the adoptability of orphaned/relinquished children in the region where our two kids are is unwilling to sign any paperwork. In fact over the last year, very few adoptions within this region, (the largest region in ET), have been finalized, thus bringing to a halt much of the revenue these orphanages need to feed and clothe their children and pay their staff, and many orphanages have shut down altogether. So, when we got the call on December 10th that our paperwork from the Ministry’s regional office had just been signed we were in shock. Time to do work!

What happens after this regional MoWA letter is signed is the issuance and acceptance of an official Adoption Referral. Along with the referral come more forms and filings as well as a sizable referral/acceptance fee. Now, with all that was, or, really wasn’t happening, with the MoWA office over the last year, our last fundraising effort we did was back in June. At that point we had already saved/raised about $25K and paid in about $10K, leaving us now with $15K, allotted for the bulk of the final fees, including the large referral fee. Beyond this, we would need to save/raise funds for airfare. Once Jamie and I receive an official court date in Ethiopia we will fly to Addis Abbaba, the capital. There we will get to meet these two beautiful children for the first time, as well as appear in court. Upon, (Lord willing) passing court we will actually be sent home while our case is investigated by the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia. Upon receiving clearance from the Embassy, (this can take a couple months), we will fly back over, pick up our son and daughter and fly aaaaaaaaaall the way back home to Tacoma, Washington, where the real work of transition, attachment, bonding, language learning and, in general, raising our two new children to mature adulthood will actually begin. The reality is, this phase we are in, and have been in for the last three years, is really just the prequel to the main story about to begin.

What is our need? Airfare is going to be a large expense with the need for Jamie and I to fly there and back twice, and on that second trip, to bring home our new son and daughter. That’s four round trip and two one-way international plane tickets. We are estimating this cost to be as much as $10K. However, along with receiving our referral on December 19th, we were surprised to see that the fee for accepting the referral for two children was not the approximate $15K like we thought, but actually $24K. We were not expecting this. The process of adopting internationally is a thick, thick process, especially when drawn out over 3 years. We’re not sure where the breakdown in our calculating and estimating occurred, but, bottom line: we are short. We thought we would just be raising support, in two separate phases: the first trip, then the second trip. We thought we were in a good place, but apparently we are about $9K short before airfare.

Can you please help us? Even though we find ourselves up against what seems to be an insurmountable obstacle, we are remembering how we got this far and how it all started. This adoption actually wasn’t our idea. It was God’s idea. He worked to create space in our hearts for more kids when we were otherwise done. Also, not just Jamie and I, but Lily and Beau have, from the first mention three years ago, been fully on board. And the funds saved and rose thus far? All credit to God, who works in miraculous ways to move hearts and funds, for his glory and for the good of many. We have so many stories!

We will be contacting our Agency on Monday, 12/22 to see how we can move forward in accepting this referral with the funds we have available now, and then make up the difference as soon as possible. Would you be able to help us?

We can actually accept tax-deductible charitable donations, by sending a check to our local agency, Adoption Ministry of YWAM. The instructions are easy but very specific. Click here for the instructions. Does your employer do matching funds for charitable giving? Again, Adoption Ministry of YWAM is a registered 501(c)(3), and can issue tax deductible receipts to you and your employer. Now is perfect timing for a year end donation. Another simple way of donating is by mailing us a check directly, (mailing address below), or by clicking our “donate” button on the side column of our blog. You can get there by clicking here. Again, to be clear, giving to Adoption Ministry is the only tax-deductible option. Now, in the past, some have wanted to donate a larger amount, but had to break it up into smaller, monthly increments. We definitely need funds now to pay this referral acceptance fee, but we will also have airfare, travel, and miscellaneous costs ahead of us in the next few months. Maybe you can give $25, $100, or even $200/month over the next 3 or 4 months. That would be a HUGE help!

Do you have other family or friends, or know other entities that would support our cause? Invite them into the story. Jesus told his disciples that one day he would return in glory with his angels and those whom he knew would be characterized by faith, hope and love that spilled out in acts of grace and mercy to the forgotten, the outsiders, the “least of these”. In Matthew 25:40 Jesus says, “Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.” A brother and sister, 8,400 miles away in a small orphanage need you to act. Just like you, these two are made in the very image of God, the Imago Dei. Just like you, they matter to God. Please help us bring them home. And when they do get home, and we come out from hiding, we will call on you again, because we need you. After all, it takes a big, loving community to raise a child.

We haven’t taken a hike on the adoption paperwork mountain in months. With the arrival of our Referral letter just days away we’ve laced up our boots and started climbing. I just had an hour long battle with our printer. After prayer, new ink, paper jams, lost wifi connections and more prayer it’s finally printing. Please pray for peace, strength, wisdom and perseverance. This mountain is rugged, but our kids are up there.
Thanks in advance!
-Kyle and the Team

Happy Advent!
Advent refers to the anticipation of the coming of a significant person, thing, or event, and there is so much anticipation around Christmas. And anticipation gets mingled this time of year with words like busy, and stress, and phrases like, hustle and bustle. When was the last time you or I stopped, took a deep breath, turned off the radio, TV and our phones and asked ourselves honestly just what it is that we are anticipating this Christmas? Many of us anticipate sweet reunion with family and friends, the joy on a loved one’s face upon opening that perfect gift. For some it is the anticipation of arguments and the reopening of old wounds, loneliness, or maybe a few extra unwanted holiday pounds. Many of us recognize that we live in a world that is broken. Where my family and I live, we don’t even have to open the door to look for brokenness, we hear it through the walls of our house. Belligerent, careless, vile, and desperate are the voices that puncture our walls in the very late hours. Even from within the walls of our home can be heard, now and again, the brokenness of a careless word. Can the pillars of anticipation be such things as hope, joy, and peace?

Two thousand years ago, God’s people in the Near East and throughout lived with an anticipation of the coming of Messiah- the Rescuer- the one who would heal, who would set things right, who would deliver from the hand of oppressive rulers and establish a rule of peace and prosperity.

“The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight…” Stop, and let us imagine. Imagine a midnight light, so bright in the sky, that it could only be the terrifying and blinding, majestic light of the messengers of Almighty God. And that it is. Angels! Filling the night sky with glory as they hover above the earth in triumphant song, announcing the arrival of the long anticipated Messiah. He’s here! He’s there, in Bethlehem, in a stable, wrapped in cloths.

Tell me you wouldn’t sprint. Tell me you wouldn’t unlock some hidden strength and stamina dormant till this very moment when at last your greatest desire is right there, just over that hill. Tell me you wouldn’t squeal, just a little. Tell me you wouldn’t heelclick. Tell me you wouldn’t EXPLODE! It’s Christmas! He’s here! He’s here! He’s here!

Jesus…

Love has come. Peace has come.
Hope and Joy and life everlasting have come.
Run. Run. Run! With all your longings and deepest desires.
With all your fears and trepidation, and all your fragile hope.
Run! Don’t stop. Don’t slow down. Don’t look right or left.
All that you need, all that you desire is finally here.
Whoever you are, wherever you are, wherever you’ve been,
Run to Love Incarnate. Run to Jesus.

Happy Advent, and Merry Christmas!
PART TWO
I actually hadn’t planned on a two-part Christmas letter, but…

The day after writing Part One, I got a call while scooping gutters atop my customer’s roof- this happens all the time. I hit the button on my earbuds to answer the call and continued scooping. The voice on the other end belonged to the director of our adoption agency, Joy. We greeted each other and she advised me that she had just received “interesting news” from the in-country adoption agency in Ethiopia…

Two years ago today (December 12th, 2014) I got a call while on a ladder cleaning windows. It was Joy, calling to inform me of two children in Ethiopia, a brother and sister, who needed a family and would we be interested. They were 7 years and 3 weeks old. “Yes!” I told her. An hour later, about to drive away from my customer’s house, I received an email with their names and most precious of all, photos. I stared at their names and faces. They were beautiful. That was a long two years ago…
We started this adoption journey three years ago with great anticipation, even though we were warned about the nature of adoption’s slowdowns and obstacles. But when Joy told us this Fall that we were the longest waiting family our agency had ever worked with and that they weren’t seeing any signs that the region of Oromia would be signing any papers in the foreseeable future and we should consider moving on to children from a different region, we felt as if we were being asked to decide whether or not to pull the life support plug of not one, but two of our loved ones. We were not anticipating news like that. Thus began a season of grief and uncertainty, not knowing how or what to pray. As Christians we believe in a God who is sovereign in all things and who works in all things to bring his children to a closer, stronger, more sure and more satisfying dependency on him. So, without answers, clarity, or direction-but with hope, we grieved and prayed on…

Interesting news? I dropped my scoop in the bucket hanging from the gutter trough and sat back on the roof. “Interesting news” could mean anything and I didn’t feel like multi-tasking. Joy informed me that the letter we’d been waiting over a year for, that identifies our kids as officially “adoptable”, the letter that would propel us forward into the final stages of our adoption process had finally been written and signed, and were we ready to pick up where we left off… Blink. Blink. Gulp. “Yes. Yes, of course!”
Advent the anticipation of a significant person or event…. We don’t know if or what kind of obstacles may cross the final lengths of our adoption journey, but with great anticipation and joy we are pressing on. Will you join us on this journey? I can’t imagine the spiritual opposition against the coming of Christ one “Silent Night” long ago. And against such Gospel imaging works as adoption, there will be great opposition, we’ve seen it already. We need your prayers, your encouragement, your wisdom and support. We would welcome any chance to listen and talk with you, our friends and family. After all, our family has always needed the love and support of our family and friends. We would also like to ask you to consider giving an end of year donation to our adoption fund. Although it’s still months away, we have airfare costs estimating around $10,000, (2 trips to ET= 4 roundtrip & 2 one way tickets). Instructions on how to donate are included on a separate card.
When I get the chance to see these two beautiful kids in person, I probably won’t sprint. This meeting will be a delicate one. But in my heart, there will be sprinting, there will indeed be heel clicking and, yes, a joyous squeal.

I know this year’s letter didn’t include a full family update. Let’s get together; we’d love to see you!

I’ve been wanting to write an update for a while, but it’s so hard when it feels like there’s nothing positive to report. After our homestudy was approved in October, things were cruising along and we were starting to imagine timelines of having our kids home in our head. Then things started to slow. We’ve had a few tiny bits of info, but this last month has been an especially hard one. First we heard a rumor that Ethiopia was preparing to close it’s doors to International Adoption. This had us praying hard for a week while we waited for news. Thankfully, when news came it was that it was looking like there might be some changes, but that IA doors would stay open! Praise God! We were so thrilled. Unfortunately, that was when we got out next hard news. The department in Ethiopia that is next in line to sign off on our kids adoption, isn’t signing. The office is effectively closed. YWAM says they’ve dealt with one other closure like this before and that eventually they opened back up and started signing again. So, as of now, that’s what we wait for. This has run our hearts through the gamut. Every time we think about it or talk about it, we remember that God knows these kids intimately. He has not forgotten them. They won’t arrive at our home one day before He has planned. We continue to trust Him in the process. But, it has been so painful. Our hearts have broken over the stagnation. We can only imagine what God is preparing us for and how He’s using this time, but we continue to ask that things would begin to move forward again.

We wish we had better news to report, we’ll try to post anything we are able to. Please continue to pray with us! We need your love, support and encouragement. We’ve been so blessed already by friends and family who have been willing to walk down this long hard road with us. Thanks for asking questions and accepting difficult answers. Thanks for going after our hearts. Thanks for being there. It often doesn’t make sense, but it’s easy to get caught up in an American “we want it now” attitude. We think this is worth waiting for.

Wow, as I reread the last post we wrote, (dated June 3rd – oops!) it’s almost exactly what I was planning to write today! Turns out instead of being days away from our homestudy being completed, we were actually months away. If I had realized that, then, I would have been heartsick, but so much good has come out of these last 5 months that I wouldn’t trade it! God knew exactly what our family needed and we want nothing more than to be ready for our family to grow!

So to officially announce it – OUR HOMESTUDY HAS BEEN APPROVED! Woo-Hoo! Yesterday I fedex’d our I600A into USCIS and now we wait to get an appt to get fingerprinted and then approved for a referral. (If you’d like another run down on the timeline, there’s one in the post below)

I really want to share why our homestudy took so long, I’m not sure if I’ll have all the words to explain it fully, but I’ll give it a try. I really want to honor our kids and not cut them down in any way, hopefully my heart for them will come through loud and clear. They are two of the best kids I’ve ever known in every way! 🙂

Any one who knows us at all, knows that we have long struggled with our son, Beau. God gave us an amazingly gentle and compliant first born daughter to ease us into parenting at the ripe young age of 21, but 2 short years later, He lovingly showed us that it was not our prideful, spot on parenting that gave Lily, her easy going nature, (don’t hear me wrong, Lily has just as many heart issues to grow in as the rest of us, it’s the outward manifestations of those that are different). Beau was born with a personality and a will that we weren’t used to and we’ve struggled to keep up with ever since. As we’ve walked down this path of adoption, he’s been a big concern of ours, while he is over the moon about having a new brother and sister, we know just how difficult things might really be once they’re here and although we talk about it all the time, we know it’s next to impossible for him to really understand what’s ahead. When these kids join our family, our boys will be within a year apart. We know that this means it’s highly likely that there will be competitiveness, jealousy and more. We also have vision of a close relationship and lifelong friendship, but we’re really gearing up for some challenging times.

So last Spring, we dove into some family counseling with Beau. He was super responsive from the beginning, (well not actually literally responsive, it was almost always like pulling teeth to get him to share how he was feeling about it all, but he was very compliant). Our counselor Karen was great with us and patient with Beau. We worked through lots of strategy’s and ways to help Beau think through situations he might find himself in, we implemented a lot more structure than we’d be used to operating out of and lots more. One major thing that came out of all of that was that we actually diagnosed Beau with ADD. I had never even considered that could be something he was struggling with because I felt like he could focus and could sit still when he needed to, school has never been much of a problem for him. But we realized that a lot of the behaviors he does struggle with fall under the impulsive category and a lot of other things, (I know some of this is coming out a little vague, I’m trying to be respectful to Beau and also not make this post take 30 minutes to read!).

We have decided to manage this with Beau in a few different ways, I think I’ll save more of an explanation of that for another time, but I will say that primarily it’s through counseling, medicine and diet changes. We know that this will be something we are evaluating for the rest of his life, but for now we have a lot of peace about the decisions we’ve had to make. Also, Beau has experienced a ton of HEALING!! Praise God! We are continually seeing growth in Beau that we never thought would come. He is much slower to react in anger and if he does slip up, he’s much quicker to calm down and even apologize! We are finding that role playing a hard situation ahead of time makes a huge difference in his decision making skills and that he thrives in more structure than we were offering him before. Again this is like the tip of the ice berg and we’re happy to talk more about it with anyone who is interested, but I’ll try to keep it short for this post. 🙂

So with all that to say, we have come to a place where we were able to show enough progress that our homestudy could be approved! We are overjoyed and so thankful to be taking steps forward, (although we truly believe we have been taking steps forward this whole time, it does feel like its more tangible now!) we can’t wait for the day when our family grows to a family of 6!

We will try to dive back into keeping these posts coming – please click the follow button so you’ll always be in the know. Thank you so much to everyone who has continued to support us along this journey – we couldn’t have done it without our family, our dear friends, our community and most importantly, our Father God who has loved us every step of the way and has never left our side. He loves every one of us and is working all of this for His glory! Thank you, Father!

We’re still here! Everything about this process continues to surprise us. Just when we think, “that delay won’t happen to us”, “we surely won’t have that obstacle”, it happens. It’s just the nature of the beast. 🙂 But God is working these kids into our hearts and preparing us in His perfect timing. We couldn’t orchestrate this any more perfectly. We are hopefully days away from having a completed homestudy. From there we will send in our I600A, (Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition). While we wait for that to be processed we will finalize all of our dossier, (a file containing detailed records on a particular person or subject – basically a compilation of all of our important documents that will be send to Ethiopia) and get finger printed again. When our approval comes, it’s called an I-171H, we will be ready for a referral, this is when we will be officially matched to our kiddos. And at sometime after all of this, we will receive a court date and get ready to travel. I read a good and realistic summary of this timeline from our agency this morning and I thought I’d share it if it was helpful to anyone:

It seems that we get the most questions from families in the adoption process, and rightfully so, on timing. I will list the timing on what we are presently seeing between the various steps. Please keep in mind that this can fluctuate. For instance, we regularly see an office (like MoWA) come to a standstill if there is a seminar. In that case, everyone goes and the office does no paperwork during that time. The point I’m trying to make is that this is certainly not set in stone!

Application to Home Study and Dossier completion – This varies greatly and mostly depends on the family. Home studies generally take 2-3 months and USCIC approval another 6-8 weeks after that.

Dossier Completion to Referral – This, of course, varies greatly and we have no control on this. In most situations, the more flexible a family is on age and sex, the quicker this is.

Once a family accepts a referral – This takes 1-3 weeks before the case file is ready to submit to the court.. The orphanage director must sign an agreement with the new family’s’ name on it. Other miscellaneous minor documents that may have been in the process at referral may be completed also during this time.

After the court has accepted the file, they will assign the first court date within 1 to 2 weeks. This first date is when a birth parent or guardian will appear. In the case of abandonment, the file will be opened at that date and double checked to make sure all the necessary documents are there. If the documents are all in the file, then the judge will at that time (or a short time later) set the date for the adoptive family to appear. This is typically 2 to 3 weeks out. IF there is a document missing (for example, maybe the approval letter from MoWA is delayed), she will wait until that document is received before setting the second date. The great thing about this newer way of scheduling is that the adoptive parents can rest easier knowing that their adoption will most likely be pronounced final while they are there.

Once the adoption is final, it takes about 5 weeks to complete the paperwork that the Embassy needs in order to investigate. Once this file is submitted to the Embassy, they generally take a month to investigate and then give the family notice they can travel for the visa interview soon after that.

The total of weeks from referral acceptance to Embassy approval is typically between 9 and 13 weeks. Please remember that if there are any other extenuating circumstances, it will add to this time.

So, we’re definitely looking at some time ahead of us, but we are hopeful that it will pass quickly! We are thankful for this time to help us grow stronger as a family and be all the more ready to become a family of 6! 🙂 Thanks for sticking with us on this journey – we can’t do this alone!

Also …. we are having our 2nd annual garage sale this Friday and Saturday, June 7th and 8th. It will be at our sister and brother’s house 5018 N 19th St in Tacoma – join us for some excellent shopping!

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We welcome your encouragement, advice and questions. Comment on our blog or give us a call!
Kyle 253-414-5304
Jamie 253-414-5303